What Is Thrifting?
Why, thrifting is the act of shopping at thrift shops. Thrift shops,
for those of you dialing in from another civilization, are stores that
sell used clothing, housewares and other items that have been donated
by people who no longer have a use for them. These items are sold at
a modest markup and the profits go to whatever charitable organization
runs the store. The donator gets closet space, the charity gets cash
and the buyer gets unbelievably nifty stuff for next to nothing.
Everybody wins.
Why Thrift Shops And Not Discount Stores?
Because discount stores sell cheap new stuff, and for that stuff to be
cheap, it's usually made somewhere in the Far East under grim conditons.
Well, not always, but you get the idea. Thrifts sell stuff cheap
because they got it for free, and the money goes to good causes. Also,
cheap new stuff is more likely to fall apart than cheap used stuff.
Why? Because used clothes (for example) have already been worn, yanked,
washed, dried and hung several times over, so all the seams that
could possibly rip have been ripped and all the dyes that could
possibly fade have faded. If it still looks good, it'll probably keep
looking good well into the next few years.
What Can You Get At A Thrift Shop?
Clothes, of course. Also, scads and scads of coffee mugs,
commemorative glasses and other discarded dishware. Furniture.
Vinyl albums, 8-track tapes, Atari cartridges and other obsolete
media. Really weird art in strange frames. All kinds of books.
Old magazines. Filing cabinets. Jewelry. Naked Barbie dolls.
Just about anything that somebody could have thrown away, but
decided to donate instead in the hopes that someone else might
have a use for it.
Where Can I Find Thrift Shops?
Look up "Thrift Shops" in the yellow pages of your local phone book.
Or try driving around the cheaper parts of town--thrifts tend to move
into places with low overhead. There's a shopping plaza here in
Decatur, Georgia with two different thrift shops to choose from
(Atlanta Union Mission and Amvets.) It's a great place to start off a
day of thrifting.
If this is your first time out, get directions. (This is what the
handy number in the phone book is for.) If you know where you're going,
figure out the best route from one place to the next. A good thrifting
day can cover five or six stores, depending on how far you have to
drive to get to the next one.
Tip: Never mix thrift shopping with regular shopping. Either
the regular stores will look ridiculously pricy, or the thrift stores
will look faded and sullen.
Tip: Sunday is a bad day to go thrifting, as a number of places
will be closed. Saturday is ideal. Weekdays are okay, but the shops
tend to be filled with the kind of people who have weekdays off.
When you arrive, give the place a quick once-over. If there's anything
in particular you're looking for (a cheap decoratable dress for a
costume, say, or a funky vase for your bathroom window) check for it in
the appropriate section. If you're just there to see what there is to
see, then, well, just look.
Shopping For Clothes:
Scan the racks as you walk up each aisle. Look for colors that
interest you. Run your hands along the clothing racks. I've managed
to find a number of silk shirts simply by
touch. You can also detect spectacularly comfortable items of clothing
this way--if it feels good to your fingers, it'll probably be just as
nice to the rest of your body.
If something catches your eye (or hand) have a closer look. Check the
price tag, if there is one (see below.) Check for any obvious defects
--stains, rips,
etcetera. If you see any, decide if you can live with them or repair
them. A friend of mine brought a leather jacket back from the dead
by replacing the zipper and fixing some torn seams; it's served him
nicely ever since. If you're not the handy type, keep looking until
something else turns up. There are lots of clothes to choose
from in a decent-sized thrift shop.
Tip: Thrift shops use two kinds of pricing. One is individual
pricing (each item has a little tag with a price scribbled on it in
grease pencil in the universal thrift shop handwriting) the other is
straight pricing (all jackets, for example, are $3.50, no matter what
the material or condition of the jacket is.) Straight pricing is
great for nabbing incredibly neat stuff at cheap prices, individual
pricing is best for picking up well-worn items for spare change.
Places that price individually will usually mark things down over time,
so if five bucks is a little bit much for that rayon paisley shirt,
come back a week later and if someone else hasn't nabbed it, you may
be able to pick it up for three-fifty. I've gotten a couple of pairs
of black knit pants for ninety-nine cents, because I was the only
human being who could fit into the things.
When thrifting, you should really settle for nothing less than love at
first sight. If it is truly meant to be, it will fit and look good.
If it doesn't quite work, put it back--there are plenty of other clothes
out there.
Tip: Bring a second opinion. Thrifting is always more fun with
more than one person--you can help each other find things, give an
extra point of view on how things look and crow over amazing finds
together. Ideally, you should bring people who are a different sex
and/or a different size to avoid fighting over the same clothes. (My
roomie and I have come precariously close to conflict over certain items
that fit us both, but we have the "you can always borrow it" escape
hatch to keep us from resorting to violence.)
If the place has changing rooms, you're golden. In other places,
you'll be lucky to find a mirror. There are lots of ways around this.
Shirts:
Hold the shirt by the shoulder seams and place the
seams against your shoulders. If they land somewhere along your
collarbone, it's going to be a bit small. If they go past your
shoulders and venture downwards towards your elbows, it's going to be
a bit big. If it's a long sleeved shirt, hold the shoulder seam at one
end and see where the cuff falls on your arm. Decide of it's close
enough to your wrist for you to handle.
Jackets and vests:
Most of the shirt tests apply, but you can
also try the things on over your clothes with a minimum of fuss.
Pants:
Hold the waistband flat--don't stretch it--and lay it
against your actual waist. If the two ends threaten to wrap around the
back, it's going to be a bit loose, and if they barely cover the front,
it's going to be a tight fit. Do crotch check to see where the crotch
of the pants falls in relation to your actual crotch. (If the pants
crotch lands above the actual, don't bother.) Hold one leg straight
and see where the cuff lands as you still hold that waistband in place.
If it goes past your foot and hits the floor, consider hemming.
Skirts:
About the same as for pants, only the crotch test
doesn't apply, obviously, and you have much more latitude with where
the hem lands.
Note: Thrift shop clothes aren't always going to be a perfect
fit. Indeed, it's something of a bonus if they are. The real
question is whether or not it's a fit you can live with. I'm personally
rather fond of having a little room to move around in (being an
Obnoxiously Skinny Person, most of my clothes tend to have some) but
even I have held my breath to fit into things that were just too keen
to pass up. I picked up a black velvet jacket with sleeves that are
a twee short on my arms, but I pair it up with a frilly blouse with
long and busy cuffs and no one notices. Remember--thrifting has very
little to do with fashion and everything to do with style.
Shoes:
However, shoes do need to fit or your feet will hate you. Know
thy size, and know what size you can lean towards. Feel free to slip
off the shoes you have and try on shoes in thrift shops. Give these
shoes the stand test, the walk test and the do-they-look-good-or-not
test. Check the sole and heel for any major damage. Remember that
heels can be repaired fairly cheaply at those little shoe-and-key
places all over town. I'm not much of a shoe person, but I have
obtained some fabulous, fabulous shoes at thrifts that have not
given me a day of pain or trouble--which is more than I can say for
some new shoes I've gotten elsewhere.
Shopping for Furniture
Unlike clothing, furniture isn't usually an impulse buy. People buy
furniture for one of two reasons--they don't have it in the first place
or they're sick of the furniture they have and want something new to
stare at. If you belong to the latter category, you may just want to
stop here--no sensible person throws out their old furniture to make
room for somebody else's old furniture. However, if you've just moved
and suddenly realize that you actually need your own couch, this is the
place for you.
Before you go furniture shopping, you will need the following--